I have mixed feelings about the Powell endorsement. What he said was eloquent and hit the mark. But I also remember him with a vial in his hands talking about WMDs, assisting in the push to go to war with Iraq. And Obama's praise of the man and telling the media Powell will be an adviser of his concerns me a great deal.

I don't remember where I posted it, but fivethirtyeight.com showed some numbers that said 6% of responders would not vote for Obama because he is black, while 9% said they would vote for Obama simply because is black. You've got to figure that the 6% number is low (the Bradley effect), but even with that fudge factor built in, the idiots pretty much balance each other out.

But none of that has anything to do with the hateful questioning of Powell's motivations. Cause, really, he's shown himself to be such a racially motivated wag in his career, right? :rolleyes:



ETA: re: GC, he's also since made it known that he was very much on the outside of the administration and fed very distorted information and that he very much regrets being involved and influential in that decision making process.

It will be impossible to know if this is a factor until the event is over. For what it's worth, I'm not voting for Alan Keyes, and I feel no white liberal guilt for that fact whatsoever.

I'm just theorizing using that well known example.

I don't understand why it's so unreasonable, really. What he's saying is that in the current USA environment of race relations, yes, there are those who won't vote for him because he's black, and that there may be more who vote for him because he is, and that group includes white people with angst over days with race relations that were much, much worse than they are now.

And I believe most people are like you. And like me. It's about policy, not about race.

As far as Powell goes, though, Powell has said that having a black President would be "electrifying". That may not be his overwhelming motivation, but it is apparent that it comes into play a bit because of that statement.

Because he's being dismissive of Obama's voter base, calling into question their intelligence and motivation. He doesn't get it. Well, actually I think he does get it, but the truth is far scarier than the lame-assed excuse he is offering up.

Which he should. When Powell started waving the 'let's bomb Iraq' flag, I was convinced that the world had gone mad. Bush, Cheney, Powell among others are the faces of the Iraq War to me. This endorsement, as effective as it might be for Mr. Obama, doesn't change the fact that I think Powell didn't ask enough questions and didn't push back hard enough during the ramp up to the war. Even if he did feel that he was on the outside, that should have made him question what was going on even more.

Yep, Powell's credibility is zero with me. And frankly, I think the endorsements of people and newspapers rate near zero with the vast majority of voters.

Pro-war: culture of violence, as opposed to violence being an option of last resort. Not sure I'd use "intolerant" but certainly undesirable in my book. A person (or nation) can be strong without always threatening violence.

While blowing up abortion clinics and killing doctors isn't part of the conservative platform, I didn't see the condemnation of it coming from the Right.

I'll drink to that!

I heard that on a radio show. I'm sure there's documentation somewhere.

Hurray!!!

What? The pregnancy's real? Huh. I haven't been following the show. She was funny though. I agree that Palin in person wasn't as funny as the SNL folks but she was a good sport and I'll give her props for that. Enjoy your 15 minutes, dear, and then go back to Alaska. I loved the bit at the beginning with Sarah and Tina Fey! Awesome.

I absolutely agree. Please vote on issues, not demographics. I'm likely going to vote for Obama, but not out of guilt. I like his style, I like how he reacts to things that happen, and I like most of his policies. I want people to vote on issues, and the level of ignorance out there in the world makes me absolutely cringe.

The theory is explored at length in the book Freaknomics, and elaboration of the theory and criticism of it can be found here.